{"id":17735,"date":"2021-10-28T12:50:34","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T19:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/origin-www.parsons.com\/?p=17735"},"modified":"2021-10-28T14:03:57","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T21:03:57","slug":"infrastructure-is-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.parsons.com\/2021\/10\/infrastructure-is-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"Infrastructure Is Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Imagine a world without infrastructure. You wake up in the morning, go to take a shower, but where\u2019s the water coming from? You get the kids ready for school in a mad dash and rush them to the bus stop, but no bus materializes because there\u2019s no road. Looks like you\u2019re walking. Better call your manager because you\u2019ll have to log into work a little late this morning, but there\u2019s no way to call and for that matter, no way to log into work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes right down to it, every aspect of our lives is supported by infrastructure in some way. More than roads and bridges, infrastructure is the foundation of contemporary civilization. So when the American Society of Civil Engineers rated our country\u2019s infrastructure a C- this year, you might ask yourself how we\u2019ve let it slip this far, what we can do to improve it, and how better infrastructure can provide a better tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the best person to answer these questions and provide some insight is Mark Fialkowski, president of our Mobility Solutions business unit and all-around expert on everything transportation and environmental. Now with Parsons for more than 20 years, Mark has been fascinated by infrastructure his entire life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the average person takes infrastructure for granted, like the air we breathe, it\u2019s Mark\u2019s job to consider how infrastructure affects communities every day\u2014and what Parsons can do not just to improve infrastructure but improve people\u2019s lives in the process. \u201cWhen you think about it,\u201d Mark says, \u201cyou\u2019re thinking about all those places we need to get to quickly and efficiently and safely. You\u2019re thinking about having clean water when you turn on your tap. Having same-day Amazon deliveries. Having aesthetically pleasing points of interest that add beauty to a city or a rural area. Having a highly functioning economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if we\u2019re being honest, we\u2019re also probably thinking about our frustrations with today\u2019s infrastructure. Bumper-to-bumper traffic. Airports choked with people. Train delays. Lead-laced water. Pollution. Mark says, \u201cThe problem is that local, state, and federal agencies are constrained by budgets and resources.\u201d But that particular problem hopefully will soon find some relief with the passing of a monumental infrastructure bill, designed to modernize America\u2019s aging infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark says this influx of funding couldn\u2019t come at a better time. \u201cThe interstate system, for example, rolled out in the late \u201950s, \u201960s\u2014a couple pieces, maybe in the \u201970s and \u201980s\u2014but it’s really designed for about a 30-year service life, and a lot of those segments are over 50 years old, so that’s why you start to see deterioration.\u201d If we don\u2019t reconstruct it, he warns, the system will continue to deteriorate, which means it\u2019ll be more costly to maintain and would damage the economy, because trucks\u2014still the primary vehicle used to deliver goods\u2014would be stuck in bottlenecks. And certain regions would become less attractive to live in, so businesses and people would leave them behind, and there would be more unemployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s exactly the sort of bleak outlook Parsons is prepared to help avoid. While there\u2019s a lot of work to be done, according to Mark, \u201cThat\u2019s something we never shy away from. We\u2019re so used to sharing work and working across all geographies and time zones. We can react quicker than our competitors and bring in the horsepower necessary to deliver those tough projects. We know the clients, we know the culture, we know the geography, and all of that really puts us in a great position to deliver the projects our country needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As evidence, he points to Parsons\u2019 involvement in major projects, both completed and ongoing. We were the lead designer for the replacement of the Goethals Bridge, between New York and New Jersey\u2014one of the most advanced bridges in the world, accommodating future mass transit and incorporating state-of-the-art smart bridge technology. And we\u2019ve been working on the Dulles Corridor Metrorail (Silver Line) Phase 2 design-build project, which will extend the line 11.4 miles to Dulles International Airport and beyond. And the list goes on, from airports to wastewater treatment plants and everything in between, both in the United States and around the globe, such as our Giant Mine remediation project, in Canada; our infrastructure work for Expo 2020, in Dubai; and our 50 years providing services in Yanbu, billed as Saudi Arabia\u2019s first smart city.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While all these projects are great examples of delivering meaningful infrastructure, Mark talks about some of our technological innovations driving the future of infrastructure. \u201cIn addition to our projects,\u201d he says, \u201cwe have advancements like our digital twin work that we’re doing for airports and highways, where we create a digital model of the physical facility, so we can virtually manage and predict performance, which allows us to fix components before they fail. We have iNET\u00ae, and our people are leaders in XD design.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we can definitely deliver the shiny new infrastructure that’ll keep our country moving for the next century, but we’ve been saying for years that we’re delivering a better world, and we’re asserting that we can provide better infrastructure for a better tomorrow. <\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sound too good to be true? Thankfully, it isn\u2019t. In fact, we\u2019re already looking at the big picture and working toward a better tomorrow. We\u2019re fighting the effects of climate change by bolstering resiliency and sustainability on projects like the Turcot Interchange, in Montreal, where we rebuilt a downtown freeway system with net-zero environmental impact. Mark says we\u2019re also working with utilities in California, \u201clooking at  more resilient ways to provide electrical and gas service to customers, so we can avoid the overhead transmission lines that can start a wildfire when trees hit them.\u201d This approach can also be extended to utility providers in the Northeast to increase resilience against snowstorms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it takes more than know-how to build a cleaner, safer, more sustainable, more resilient future. It takes a top-down philosophy that starts with our leaders, a corporate culture devoted to finding the best way to overcome challenges, and the driven individuals who fuel that culture. As Mark puts it, \u201cYou can have the best tools in the world, but if you don’t have the best people, you’re not going to deliver the best product to the client. As I’ve learned over time, it’s our people who differentiate us and contribute to our success. It\u2019s that culture of sharing work that we’ve developed over the last 15 years or so that I think really makes us unique, because we\u2019re going to bring in the best people for that job, not just the people that happen to be in that office or state, so we can deliver for our clients. And when we need to ramp up for a big project, we can bring in resources from all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So tomorrow morning, when you wake up and enjoy a steaming hot shower, when the bus rolls in on cue to pick up your kids and deliver them safely to school; when you log into your computer at work at your usual time; when you cross a bridge, stealing quick glances at the bay; take a train, watching the leaves rush by in a wash of green; go through a tunnel, obliviously reading a newspaper; pour clean water into your coffee maker; find your Chewy.com package at your front door; or watch your luggage with the red yarn tied to the handle disappear down a conveyor belt, take a minute to think about the infrastructure that enables all of it to happen. Then maybe take another to imagine the possibilities. And if you\u2019ve got the time, be sure to thank all of our infrastructure compatriots here at Parsons, who are working harder and smarter than anybody in the business to create a future that we\u2019d all be thrilled to experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine a world without infrastructure. You wake up in the morning, go to take a shower, but where\u2019s the water coming from? You get the kids ready for school in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"16127,15696,6364,4449,814,9674","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7716],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-critical-infrastructure"],"yoast_head":"\nInfrastructure Is Everything<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When it comes right down to it, every aspect of our lives is supported by infrastructure. 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